Mental Health Monday's

Training: Trusting the Process. 9/6/2021

Mental Health Monday

In training for your sport, playing a pickup game, or practice; you need to stop caring about whether you “win or lose”. You need to go into it with other objectives and other goals. For example, if you are playing beach volleyball (I relate to this), maybe your goal is to try and hit all of the shots that you haven’t mastered, or getting your hands on every ball you set, whether you completely F*CK the whole thing up or not.

There’s also no need to tell anyone your objectives for the day, let them think you are playing at your highest level. Use every opportunity you have in “non-competition” settings to compete with yourself to make yourself better, because every mistake or miss you have in practice or pick up DOESN’T matter.

When the time comes to actually play in a competition/match/game all the time you spent mastering the things that were your “weakest” points in silence, pays off. Everyone will wonder what happened because that’s not what you practice like – because the PROCESS is more important than the OUTCOME when training. Master and love the process and the outcome will be there when it matters.

Now, I will also apply this to sport performance/training/fitness – the process is more important than the outcome. Spend your time training all of the things that are your “weakest links”. Enjoy the process and the outcome you want will al of a sudden be your reality because you focused on the journey not the destination. Spend the time on your progressions, your mobility/ROM, form. STOP PILING ON THE WEIGHT WITH CRAP FORM. Focus on good form, progress the weight, and you’ll be able to eventually lift the weight with good form. PROCESS OVER OUTCOME.

Adapting this mentality in my training, has helped my mental health/anxiety when it comes to” needing to play my best” while training &/or trying to lift a weight I use to be able to lift – instead using those non-competitive moments to compete with myself to be disciplined and challenge myself to make myself better in terms of a skill or form or correcting an imbalance.

Coming from a college volleyball program that said:

· It focused on process over outcome BUT also said that practice stats were used to determine play time. (CONTRADICTING)

· Said that effort & improvement on making changes held a lot of clout. (IT DIDN’T)

· Said that doing everything right and being a good example was huge. (DIDN’T MEAN A THING)

· Said that putting in the time and effort paid off, and if you outplayed the person in front of you that you would be given the opportunity to take the spot you had earned (NEVER HAPPENED)

THIS ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED MY MENTAL HEALTH, MY MENTAL GAME, AND MY FOCUS WHEN IT CAME TO WHAT WAS IMPORTANT AND WHEN.

I have set some SERIOUS goals for myself within the next few years, and a mentor let me in his training philosophy above and a couple days into it, I have already seen growth in not only my game, but my anxiety control, and all-around outlook at how I look at training.

PROCESS OVER OUTCOME.